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Drivers Lower Seat Base Bolster

terrymcg

New member
Hi Chaps,

Just thought I would stick a post up to see if anyone has had issues with the seat base bolster on the R,GTi and GTD model of seat?

Mine, no matter how I try, gets crushed getting in and out of the car. Nothing major.

It seems to have developed some sort of hard lump on the side of it, and the foam can sort of click in and out of place. I am thinking the lump may be some sort of clip maybe.

The car is only 2 years old and on 25k miles. So have booked it in for the dealer to have a look, but was straight away greeted with it may not be covered due to fair wear and tear.

Just wanted to see if anyone else had been getting anything similar?

Terry
 

afropelican

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Scotland
mine is the same but as its 4 years old the dealer wouldn't even look at it and advised me to try a local upholsterer to fix it.


I don't know how much an upholsterer would charge to fix it.

I'd suggest to get a quote and compare it against buying a seat from a scrapyard/gumtree/ebay. In some cases it can work out cheaper.
 

SRGTD

Autocross Newbie
Location
UK
I wonder if anybody sells any types of side bolster cover/protection
Never seen any. If there are such covers available, they might protect the fabric on the bolster from premature wear, but would it stop the actual foam bolster on the seat base from getting crushed though? Unlikely IMO.

I learned some years ago to lift my body weight over the outer driver’s seat bolster when getting in and out of my car to prevent premature wear to the seat cover on the bolsters or damage to the actual bolsters themselves. Initially, it felt a little unnatural doing this, but now it feels very natural getting in and out of the car this way. I’ve sold cars with heavily bolstered seats at 4-5 years old, and the seat bolsters and seat covers are still looking pretty much like new.

In the UK, VW consider any damage to seats / seat coverings to be down to wear and tear after 6 months / 6,500 miles on the basis that they consider damage is likely to be caused by driving style. I’ve read on some forums that some owners have been successful in getting seat bases / covers replaced under after 6 months / 6,500 miles, although since Dieselgate, VW do seem to be taking a much firmer line on warranty claims in general than they did pre-Dieselgate, so they’re probably sticking much more rigidly these days to the 6 months / 6,500 mile restriction.
 

Carlosfandang0

Autocross Newbie
Location
UK
Car(s)
2016 3Dr GTi DSG CSG
Pictures please!

The lower (seat base) bolster on my GTI was a little squashed with slightly wrinkly leather when I bought it, I did as I did on my old Mk6 and partially removed the seat base cover and removed the trim by the ratchet handle and used some 8mm high density foam sheet cut to the shape of the inner face of the bolster to correct it, it’s now as good as new,
This is it when purchased-
DE1D7989-CFC2-4430-BC28-BF6C30A6BC93.jpeg

it now looks and feels just like the passenger side partially shown at the bottom of the picture, no wrinkles and not deformed ?.
 
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